1. English Renaissance Poetry:
Sonnets

2. Background Invented by Francesco Petrarch
Inspired by his unrequited love for a married Italian socialite
14 lines
Iambic pentameter
A “turn” at or after line 9

3. The White Doe by Francesco Petrarch
A pure-white doe in an emerald glade
Appeared to me with two antlers of gold
Between two streams, under a laurel’s shade,
At sunrise, in the season’s bitter cold.
Her sight was so suavely merciless
That I left work to follow her at leisure
Like the miser who looking for his treasure
Sweetens with that delight in his bitterness.
Around her lovely neck, “Do not touch me”
Was written with topaz and diamond stone,
“My Caesar’s will has been to make me free.”
Already toward noon had climbed the sun,
My weary eyes were not sated to see
When I fell in the stream and she was gone.
Quatrain
Octave
Sestet

4. Parts of a sonnet Quatrain: a four-line segment
Octave or octet: the first eight lines
Sestet: the last six lines
Couplet: the last two lines, rhymed

5. Sidney’s sonnets Petrarchan rhyme scheme: ABBAABBACDCDEE
Speaker “Astrophel” (“star-lover”)
Beloved “Stella” (“star”)
Inspired by a real woman
Employ apostrophe

6. Spenserian sonnet Interlocking rhyme scheme: ABABBCBCCDCDEE
Requited and unrequited love
Fictitious love interest
Archaic language

7. Shakespearean sonnets
General loosening of focus and structure
Shakespearean rhyme scheme:
ABABCDCDEFEFGG
Address different aspects of love,
not usually unrequited
Turn at line 9 or line 13 (or both)
Idealized view of spiritual love